KUB 2018.03 Press Release David Claerbout 14 07 07 10 2018 Press Conference Thursday, July 12, 2018, 11 am Opening Reception Friday, July 13, 2018, 7 pm Press photos for download www.kunsthaus-bregenz.at Seite 1 5
This year s summer exhibition at Kunsthaus Bregenz is being dedicated to Belgian artist David Claerbout. Claerbout is one of the most renowned and significant video artists working in the world today. He became increasingly interested in time as a result of his investigations into the nature of photography and film. Fusing the past, present and future into stunning moments of temporal elasticity, his works present profound philosophical contemplations of our perception of time and reality, memory and experience, truth and fiction. He is known for his sequences of imagery that have been slowed to the extreme, images which are actually moving become almost motionless. Claerbout achieves these effects employing sequences of slides or by computer generated methods that enable imagery to become as frozen as stills. The result is increased attention on the part of the viewers, who surrender to decelerated time and adapt to it. Its auric presence and sensitive lighting make Kunsthaus Bregenz an ideal site for such a form of perception. For Die reine Notwendigkeit / The Pure Necessity, 2016, Claerbout subjects the 1967 movie of the children's book classic The Jungle Book to a reworking. The animals are not presented anthropomorphically, but to revert them to behaviors appropriate to their species. Visitors to the summer exhibition David Claerbout will be able to experience Die reine Notwendigkeit / The Pure Necessity (2016) as an open-air projection outside Kunsthaus Bregenz. Olympia (The real time disintegration into ruins of the Berlin Olympic stadium over the course of a thousand years) (2016), is a digital reconstruction of the Olympic Stadium in Berlin. David Claerbout scanned each stone of the famous Nazi building to create a deceptively real 3D version. Its representation in real time has been calculated to last for a thousand years. Stones erode and plants sprout. Even the current weather conditions are simulated by data from a webcam if the sky over Berlin is cloudless, it is likewise so in the projection. With any technological device, the first thing that is lost is the sensation of synchronicity. ( ) The way the camera moves autonomously, without any operator, indicated that it s a completely synthetic situation, as David Claerbout stated in an interview with Elise Lammer, quoted from Spike Art Quarterly, no. 53, 4/2017. Claerbout not only calculates and renders the future but also the present. Olympia is a meditation on time and perception, Impressionism in the digital era. Seite 2 5
Biography David Claerbout David Claerbout, born 1969 in Kortrijk, Belgium, studied painting in Antwerp; he lives and works in Antwerp and Berlin. His work has been presented internationally in numerous solo exhibitions, including: Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven (2005), Centre Pompidou, Paris (2007), Kunstmuseum St. Gallen (2008), De Pont, Tilburg (2009 and 2016), WIELS, Brussels (2011), SFMOMA, San Francisco (2011), Tel Aviv Museum of Art (2012), Wiener Secession (2012), Kunsthalle Mainz (2013), Nederlands Fotomuseum, Rotterdam (2014), Marabouparken, Sundbyberg (2015), KINDL Centre for Contemporary Art, Berlin (2016), Städel Museum, Frankfurt/Main (2016), MNAC, Barcelona (2017), as well as Schaulager, Münchenstein/Basel (2017). His work is represented in major public collections worldwide. Seite 3 5
Partners and Sponsors Kunsthaus Bregenz would like to thank its partners for their generous financial support and the cultural commitment that accompanies it. Seite 4 5
Director Thomas D. Trummer Curator Rudolf Sagmeister Exhibition Management Stefan Wagner ext. -413 s.wagner@kunsthaus-bregenz.at Marketing Cooperation Birgit Albers b.albers@kunsthaus-bregenz.at Development Sponsoring Lisa Hann ext. -437 l.hann@kunsthaus-bregenz.at Press Online Media Martina Feurstein ext. -410 m.feurstein@kunsthaus-bregenz.at Art Education Mareile Halbritter ext. -417 m.halbritter@kunsthaus-bregenz.at Barbara Straub ext. -415 b.straub@kunsthaus-bregenz.at Publications Katrin Wiethege ext. -411 k.wiethege@kunsthaus-bregenz.at Artist s Editions Rudolf Sagmeister, Katrin Wiethege Edition Sales Caroline Schneider-Dürr ext. -444 c.schneider@kunsthaus-bregenz.at Opening Hours Tuesday to Sunday 10 am 6 pm Thursday 10 am 8 pm Summer Opening Hours 2018 July 14 to August 31, daily 10 am 8 pm Ticket Office ext. -433 #kunsthausbregenz Seite 5 5